Posts Tagged ‘phil lasorda’

With the recent release of Volume 3 of David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection www.comicsinterview.com it is hard not to acknowledge the number of great comic creators, fans and industry observers who graced the pages that are no longer with us. It is a sad truth that, thirty-plus years since the first issue of COMICS INTERVIEW was originally published, many of the great subjects of those interviews have passed away, taking with them their unique perspective of the comics industry and their direct involvement in it.

For this reason and for the inevitable fact the list of deceased will grow, COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection becomes an extremely valuable facet of the history of comic books because it captures the insights of those that are gone and preserves them for generations of comic enthusiasts to come.

COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection amasses comics history directly from the mouths of those that lived it. Many of the interviewees were there from the beginning. Some, like writer Gaylord Dubois born in 1899, were alive before the first comic book was printed! COMICS INTERVIEW relays their perspective first hand like no other history book of this industry can or ever will.

The first three volumes of this collection reveal the words of over thirty industry insiders and observers that will never be heard again. The list is inspiring and saddening because these people were all, at some point, the heartbeat of the industry and left a legacy that continues to grow and inspire the medium today and well into the future.

Jack Abel – 1927-1996 – Artist

Alfred Bester - 1913-1987 – Writer

Dave Cockrum - 1943-2006 – Artist

Joe Colquhoun - 1924-1987 – Writer

Robert Culp - 1930-2010 – Fan on Screen

Arnold Drake - 1921-1997 – Writer

Gaylord Dubois - 1899-1993 – Writer

Jules Engle – 1909-2003 – Artist

Gardner Fox – 1911-1986 – Writer

Frank Frazetta - 1928-2010 – Artist

Steve Gerber – 1947-2008 – Writer

Dick Giordano – 1932-2010 – Artist

Dick Goldwater - 1936-2007 – Archie Publisher

Archie Goodwin - 1937-1998 – Writer/Editor

Jerry Grandenetti - 1926-2010 – Artist

Jack “Jaxon” Jackson – 1941-2006 – Writer/Artist

Carol Kalish – 1955-1991 – Marvel Sales Director

Bob Kane – 1915-1998 – Artist

Jack Kirby - 1917-1994 – Artist

Roy Krenkel – 1918-1983 – Artist

Joe Kubert – 1926-2012 – Artist

Jerry Robinson – 1922-2011 – Artist

Fred Rogers - 1928-2003 – Fan on Screen

Phil LaSorda – 1960-2008 – Comico Publisher

Carl Macek - 1951-2010 – ROBOTECH Producer

T. M. Maple - 1956-1994 – Fan Incognito

Joe Rosen – 1920-2009 – Letterer

George Roussos – 1915-2000- Artist

Adrienne Roy - 1953-2010 – Colorist

Don Thompson - 1935-1994 – CBG Editor

Kim Thompson – 1956-2013 – Fantagraphics Publisher

William Woolfolk – 1917-2003 – Writer

Those that have passed are now memorialized in a photo album on facebook that can be seenhereand will be updated when needed and as each new volume is released so be sure to “like” the COMICS INTERVIEW page.

It is no mistake that the promotional graphic we chose this Holiday Season was of the Three Wise Men bearing the first three volumes of David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW: The Complete Collection. To us the books contain the wisdom of many, regarding the comics industry, and represent the foundation that the entire medium of comic art is built on.

Bill Anderson has been delighting us all with his Facebook posts of sketchbook drawings that he acquired on a convention run with the Comico gang back in 1983. You can see his wonderful collection of sketches here.

What a flashback it was not just to see work by all the great artists that are included but to see images drawn by the Comico crew that included Matt Wagner, Reggie Byers, Will Brown, Vince Argondezzi, Phil LaSorda, Bill Cucinotta, and myself, all done over thirty years ago!

I have to say that seeing those drawings and reveling in the raw energy that exists in spontaneous sketches was quite an inspiration for me to crack out my old sketchbooks, for a personal shot of nostalgia, and to crack down and start a new one.

Anyone who has ever kept a sketchbook knows that they are visual diaries that preserve not just ideas but unfettered strokes of genius that may escape from the mind of an artist through the tip of some rendering implement be it a pencil, marker, pen or brush.

Rarely is there much sense of order in a sketchbook and that is what makes them exciting. Images jump from doodles to notes to fully rendered illustrations, randomly, revealing inner secrets of the artist’s talents that can easily be lost when applied to a more finished work.

A sketchbook reveals an artists soul. The images are the lyrics to a melody that flows from a creative hand in a staccato of strokes.

I received my first sketchbook when I was just ten years-old and I still have it. In it are drawings that are far from spectacular, most lifted from old Preston Blair cartooning books. There are, however, crude drawings of my first comic strip character, Little Sailor Boy, and my first attempts at drawing superheroes that signify a starting point in the timeline of my life in comics.

I have a modest collection of sketchbooks that I have accumulated over the years. Some are from my days at the Philadelphia College of Art, others from my years at Comico and still more from various periods in my life.

An occasional trip through them is a reminder of projects left unfinished, ideas left unrealized, and a nostalgic look at the gestation projects that came to fuition. Exposed are moments of creative brilliance, signs of potential untapped and a beacon begging for more. Sketchbooks can be our own biggest cheerleaders.

I wish that I had kept more sketchbooks. To my regret, however, I was a doodler and jotted ideas and drawings on everything I could find: napkins, notebooks, bond paper and post-its. I have folders stuffed with sketches and portfolios with more but sadly, many sketches ended in the abyss of the dreaded the circular file; the trash!

Somewhere there is a garbage man curating a gallery of my work because I was not as diligent about keeping a sketchbook as I should have.

So in front of me is a brand new sketchbook with a hundred blank pages of creative possibility waiting to be addressed. It’s like a garden waiting for seeds to be planted so that new projects can grow. New comics that need to be made.

I plan to share a few of them here at CO2 Comics, but not before I encourage all you creative types out there to dive into your own sketchbook, if you haven’t already, and plant a few seeds of your own. Let your sketchbook sing your praises and encourage you to make some great art and even greater comics. When you’re done don’t forget to share your talents with the rest of us.

CO2 Comics publishers, Bill Cucinotta and Gerry Giovinco, have formally announced that they have incredibly reached an exclusive agreement with Andrew Rev and will be reviving the Comico imprint for a new line of full color comics that will include the ELEMENTALS title originally created by Bill Willingham. The new line is expected to be available for distribution in the Direct Market this coming Fall.

Cucinotta and Giovinco were among the original founding partners of Comico the Comic Company. Comico began publishing black and white comic books in 1982 with the release of Comico Primer #1, an anthology comic that featured characters created by the original publishers.

1st five Comico Covers

Comico immediately added four new black and white features, AZ by Phil LaSorda, SKROG by Bill Cucinotta, SLAUGHTERMAN by Gerry Giovinco and GRENDEL by Matt Wagner.

Comico's 1st Color Books

In an effort to grow the fledgeling company, Comico scrapped their entire black and white line to concentrate on full color, creator-owned, comic books spearheaded by MAGE by Matt Wagner, and EVANGELINE by Chuck Dixon and Judith Hunt soon to be followed by hugely successful ELEMENTALS by Bill Willingham, all published in 1984.

Comico quickly became a contender in the independent market throughout the 1980s and as a pioneer of licensed properties began setting new standards with tiltles like ROBOTECH, STARBLAZERS, JOHNNY QUEST, SPACE GHOST, and GUMBY.

Comico for a brief period ranked third in the industry for monthly sales with a broad line of comics and graphic novels before making the fatal decision to enter the mass market, a move that would drive the company into bankruptcy leading to an eventual sale to Andrew Rev in 1990.

Along with the acquisition of Comico, Rev also bought the exclusive rights of the ELEMENTALS from Bill Willingham and has remained the sole owner of the title and characters since.

The revival of the Comico imprint by CO2 Comics will also resurrect the Elementals in the form of a 300 page full color Elementals Omnibus that will collect the first twelve issues and primary story arc of the series, accompanied by digital release of each individual issue.

Cucinotta and Giovinco, who both left the partnership before the demise of their former company, are excited to have the opportunity to steward the Comico brand in the direction it was always intended just in time to celebrate the thirty year anniversary of the title and Comico’s publication of their first color comic books.

“This would be a dream come true,” admits Giovinco, who confesses that this is nothing more than a cruel prank that he perpetrated since April Fools Day coincided with his weekly blog post that is launched each Tuesday morning.

*Sincerest apologies to Andrew Rev, Bill Willingham, Dynamite Entertainment and any comic fan or speculator who may have experienced palpitations due to this post that was solely intended for good fun.

Random posts of quotes and photos of comic creators who were interviewed in the magazine have evolved into a photo feature that we like to call the Quote of the Day. The positive buzz generated by this feature encouraged us to generate more content and so began a staggered release of cover images from the issues that have been reprinted in the first two volumes of David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW The Complete Collection.

COMICS INTERVIEW #5 surfaced quickly and brought back a tidal wave of memories. That was the issue where Bill Cucinotta and I, as part of the fledgeling Comico crew that also included our former partner Phil LaSorda and SKROG inker, Bill Anderson, were interviewed by David Anthony Kraft, himself, in a New York coffee shop.

The event is so much like a dream that we often have to remind ourselves just how it came to be. We were all young guys full of hopes and ambition living the best times of our lives. Those were the days that, as comic creators, Bill and I look upon with the greatest fondness. We were taking chances, creating our own material and attempting to do what others said we couldn’t; build a comic company from scratch.

Primer #1

We had published our first black and white comic, Primer #1 in October of 1982 and a few months later, in February 1983, David Anthony Kraft’s COMICS INTERVIEW #1 hit the stands. We knew right away that this was a magazine that we wanted to be associated with and Bill, who was always focused on ways to promote our comics in the Direct Market, was quick to contact David Anthony Kraft to set up advertising arrangements.

It was very easy for all of us to be star-struck. Dave was one of our heroes, having written and edited for Marvel for years. We had all cut our teeth reading his work and suddenly we were dealing with him on a regular basis. It was not long before we were referring to him as DAK.

Dave was much more than a business associate. To us, he was a mentor, filling our heads with knowledge about the comics industry including inside stories and tons of “of the record” anecdotes. More than that, he was a friend. Dave understood that we were possibly biting off more than we could chew but he was always willing to nurture our enthusiasm and offer respected criticism.

This support started with that first conversation he had with Bill regarding advertising which resulted in a trade deal where we ran Interview ads in our comic books and Dave ran Comico ads in his magazine. This allowed us to build a respected presence in the market with no cash expense and to have more reasons to call Dave on a regular basis.

The first Comico ad ran in Comics Interview #3 and our ads became a staple in the magazine for years to come. Lucky for us, we really hit it off with Dave and suddenly we were on a train to New York to be interviewed in issue #5.

Dave must have really been amused by us. We were a bunch of goofy kids with big dreams that only seemed possible because we didn’t know better. Our naiveté was our biggest strength; that and an unbridled enthusiasm to create comics.

Gerry Giovinco, Bill_Cucinotta & Phil_LaSorda

We dove into our interview with such a flurry that a half hour into it Dave realized his recorder had not recorded a word we said and we would have to start over. It was typical of our hit-and-miss approach to making comics. If we didn’t get it right the first time, learn from the mistake and make it better next time.

It is embarrassing, now, to read our ramblings, recognizing in hindsight how amazing it was that we would be able to steer Comico to become a powerhouse in the industry and establish standards and milestones that would influence the creation and success of future companies like Dark Horse and Image.

Dave, in all his wisdom, was able to see in our comics what he referred to as “a contagious enthusiasm that transcended their shortcomings.”

Of the entire interview the most significantwords were written by Dave in the introduction where he recognized Comico for the pioneers that we were as publishers.

“Comico, the comic company, is among the newest and most ambitious of the independent publishers springing up in the field. Comico’s five titles – AZ, SKROG, SLAUGHTERMAN, GRENDEL and PRIMER – are distributed through the direct-sales system and are available exclusively in comics shops or by subscription.

What is, perhaps, most surprising about such an enterprising endeavor is that all of the comics creators are ( at least, for now) essentially unproven and unknown. Starting from scratch, on such a scale, is virtually unprecedented under the circumstances.”

Our presence in COMICS INTERVIEW #5 marked a coming of age for us. We shared the issue with industry legends, Stan Lee, Dick Giordano, Wendy and Richard Pini! To be included with this iconic group, for us, was a dream come true. It was time that we were taken seriously by the industry, fans and, most importantly, ourselves.

Future issues of COMICS INTERVIEW would chronicle our achievements as our line grew. Features about The Elementals in issue #17 and ROBOTECH in issue #23 were evidence that we were a company on the move, adapting to survive and prosper. More would follow and Comico, as a company, managed to maintain a lifespan as long as COMICS INTERVIEW itself.

Comico, unfortunately has gone the way of every other independent publisher of that era. Bill an I however are still plugging away, as enthusiastic as ever but with quite a few battle scars to show for it. We still look to Dave as a mentor and friend and knew that when we started publishing as CO2 Comics we had to re-establish our relationship with COMICS INTERVIEW.

We are now on a long journey to package the entire 150 issue run of that memorable magazine in an eleven volume set. Two volumes are complete and the third is in production.

As Dave says, “It is a labor of love.” And what’s not to love? For us, everyday is a trip back to the “good old days” and a reminder of the enthusiasm that keeps Bill and I making comics just because we want to.

Self-publishing is often perceived with a certain disdain that I always struggle to understand especially when it concerns publishing comics. Self-publishers are usually viewed as purveyors of “Vanity Press” or unrefined rebels, void of editorial and quality control, rather than the enlightened, creative entrepreneurs that they often are.

For the record, I have always considered myself a self-publisher though I have spent a lot of time publishing the works of others. I self-published my first comics in high school. Those comics were printed on a mimeograph machine and distributed from class-to-class and sold for a nickel apiece.

In college, where I met my long time publishing partner Bill Cucinotta, we published a student newspaper, DUCKWORK, with a bunch of like-minded friends that all had an interest in comics. We were doing our own thing and doing it collectively so I still considered what “we” published as self-published.

Few people remember or realize that Comico began as a self-publishing venture. Our earliest projects all featured comics that we created ourselves. AZ, Skrog, and Slaughterman were each works of the individual Comico partners, Phil LaSorda, Bill Cucinotta, and myself. Primer was intended an introductory product for our personal projects but became our first vehicle to present the works of others, most notably our former DUCKWORK pal, Matt Wagner, and his signature work Grendel.

It was only fitting that when Bill and I began publishing on the web as CO2 Comics the first features we launched were our earlier works SkrogandSlaughterman. We were self-publishers again!

Because we do enjoy publishing others, we set up CO2 Comics as a cooperative venture where we work closely with creators to present their work on our site. When we do publish works in print we consider the creators our partners and insure that they receive the lion’s share of net profits from sales of their books.

I don’t ever want to lose my perception of being a self-publisher because I consider it a virtue and a right. Cat Yronwode, esteemed comics critic, and editor once questioned our rights to publish what was admittedly amateurish material. Her comment in the Comics Buyer’s Guide sent me into a tizzy back in 1983 because I am so adamant about a creator’s right to have control over their work which is my primary endorsement for self-publishing. I argued that as Americans we should have the right to publish whatever we want and that the market will determine our fate.

Self-publishing, in fact has integral responsibility for the birth of our nation. Forefather, Ben Franklin, was a self-publisher and champion of freedom of speech. He used his press, his writings and his publishing skills to inspire and encourage the American Revolution. He valued those rights and so should we as comic creators.

This is the sense of independence that comic creators needed when it became obvious that the big comic publishers were taking advantage of them. By the late seventies when people started demanding rights for Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster followed by champions for Steve Gerber and Jack Kirby it became obvious that alternative publishing was necessary in the comics industry

For us, like many others, self-publishing was the answer. Thanks to the nature of the Direct Market in the comics industry at the time, self-publishers could easily get their foot in the door. A lot of good and bad publishers proliferated but what became clear was that comics could be more than just superheroes and the opportunity for diversity in the medium exploded. Self-publishing opened the door for creative opportunity that may not have existed otherwise.

The new generation of comic creators with this expanded view of the medium quickly moved to the world wide web and launched a self publishing assault that proved anything is possible when creating comics. Stick figures capably replaced the anatomically exaggerated superheroes as dominant reading material on the web.

Now, with digital advancements in printing and distribution, the opportunity to self-publish is as accessible and affordable than ever before leaving the greatest challenge to be that of being discovered by an audience.

More than ever, self-publishing is the doorway to creative freedom. As creators, now is the time to encourage each other to embrace the opportunity to swelf-publish, to control your intellectual property and not be victimized by unscrupulous publishers who continue to exploit the antiquated work-for-hire business model.

This is our goal at CO2 Comics. We recognize that not every creator wants the burden of all the details that self-publishing requires wether it be on the web or in print. We want CO2 Comics to be a safe haven for projects to be published while creators retain ownership and control over their property.

More importantly we intend that creators are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve and would warrant as a self-publisher because we know personally what a virtue self-publishing is.

I can’t believe that 2011 is finally behind us! The year sure went fast and boy was it rocky but hey, some of us enjoy a wild roller coaster ride. Now we have to look forward to the brave new year of 2012. Thanks to the Mayan calendar and a few other prophetic hijinks many fear that this year is targeted to be The End of the World.

Bring it on Baby!

Regardless what the predictions may be, you can bet 2012 will be the end of the world as we know it, especially in the field of comics. 2011 set the foundation for the Digital Age and I think that this year you will see comics taking a foothold as a dominant player in digital media.

Beware of the little guy!

The nature of digital marketing and distribution as it stands today will make the market an open free-for-all and don’t be surprised to find some of the smallest fish making the biggest waves because of their ability and willingness to navigate freely, unencumbered by bureaucracy, corporate red tape, and allegiance to traditional systems of distribution.

This sounds like a lot of hype from an Indy guy like myself plugging a web based comic site here at CO2 Comics with my partner Bill Cucinotta and a loyal roster of comic contributors that for the last two and a half years have been plugging away diligently. We are happy to be little guys in times like this because we have been there before and we know the potential of the current environment.

Gerry Giovinco, Bill Cucinotta & Phil LaSorda

2012 marks the thirtieth anniversary of our first attempt at publishing comics as Comico the Comic Company. Bill and I, along with former partners Phil and Dennis LaSorda, were little guys with not much more than a dream when we attempted to tackle the then fledgeling Direct Market with our first black and white anthology comic book, Primer #1. Within a few years we had surprised the industry as we grew to be a dominant player, publishing acclaimed color comics, securing daring licensing deals, and working with a long list of some of the most talented artists in the field.

A lot has changed over the last thirty years, in the industry, in the world and in our lives, but one thing is still the same. Bill and I, along with the rest of our CO2 Comics family, have big dreams about creating comics and we know first hand the potential of being the little guy. I am a sucker for nice round numbers and twenty twelve rolls of the tongue in a robust kind of way but a thirty year benchmark is a great excuse to stand up and want to be accounted for.

This year for us will be a celebration of our past accomplishments and a reminder to ourselves and the world what we are capable of. 2012 may not really be the end of the world after all but don’t be surprised if a new world emerges, especially where CO2 Comics is concerned.

Since this is my last blog before Halloween I thought it would be fun to take a jaunt down the old, haunted Memory Lane starting with an illustration I did of a baby Bela Lugosi for a project as a student at the Philadelphia College of Art.

Thirty years ago, when Bill Cucinotta and I were still hacking away with friends at our student newspaper, DUCKWORK, Matt Wagner had joined our little band of ducks. The DUCKWORK staff had that year, by proxy, become the Arts Council of the college and it became our job to coordinate the 1981 Annual PCA Halloween Ball.

Matt accepted the responsibility of designing the poster for the event which we screen printed with black ink on white paper and added a touch of red by hand. The original prints were roughly 14×18 inches and were posted around campus for all to see.

I came across the preliminary sketches that Matt had made in one of my sketchbooks, and since I am lucky enough to have the poster as well I thought it would be a nice Halloween treat to share.

The following October,DUCKWORK would be gone, but as Comico, Bill and I, along with partners Phil and Dennis LaSorda would publish our first comic book, Comico Primer #1. Matt Wagner would introduce his popular Grendel character in issue #2 and the rest is history.

Time sure flies when your making comics. Three decades later we’re still at it, bringing our readers great comics right here on the internet with CO2 Comics. We do sure miss the smell of paper though so stay tuned for another treat that will be announced sooooooooooooooooooon!

I recently had an opportunity to reread and old blog post by Tom Spurgeon on his site The Comics Reporter. In the blog post Tom takes a look at one of our old Comico publications, AZ by our late partner Phil LaSorda. Tom questions the cultural impact that such an obviously crude attempt at making comics may or should have on the market and the medium.

Now I along with my current publishing partner Bill Cucinotta who was also a partner back in those early Comico days may be biased but we also have a unique perspective just by having been there. We know, retrospectively, that the work we did in those days was seminal at best and was often criticized as being crap. It is easy to look back and be embarrassed by our rudimentary attempts to both create and publish comics. The irony, I suppose, is that as rudimentary as that material was, we are both still very proud of it for many reasons, so much so that we published it all again, right here on CO2 Comics.

Slaughterman #1

Skrog #1

SLAUGHTERMAN and SKROGmay not have had many more redeeming qualities than AZ but they were all cornerstone publications that established a foundation that Comico, one of the most influential independent publishers of the eighties, was built on. For this reason alone, despite their critical ineptness, yes, they had, and continue to have cultural impact.

I remember a scathing review by Cat Yronwode in the Comics Buyers Guide that questioned, “who gave us the right to publish such crap?” My fiery response was that we all have the right to publish what we want to in America and that, crap or not, it will be the market that decides the success of the product. I wish I had those CBG articles today.

One thing we did well at Comico, in those early days, was to learn from our mistakes. It did not take long or us to realize our success would come from publishing others. It was, however, our relationships that we had developed hanging in artist alleys at comic conventions, and our ability to relate to young and maturing talent that allowed us the opportunity to work with the likes of Matt Wagner, Bill Willingham, Sam Kieth,Chuck Dixon, Judith Hunt, Neil Vokes, Rich Rankin, Reggie Byers and many many others.

We also published a new talent showcase called Primerwhere we published the earliest work of many other budding artists who were not quite ready for the Big Two.

Comico Primer #1-6

To me the biggest impact that Comico had on the comics industry, was that it gave evidence that if a handful of guys with apparently limited talent and experience could build a company that at one time was ranked #3 behind Marvel and DC in monthly sales, then maybe, just maybe, anybody can.

I believe we created an opportunity for creators to get bold enough to publish their own work or feel more confident when presenting it to others. We all did it as artists, looked at other work that we considered weak and say, “hey, I’m at least as good as this, if this can be published than so can mine.”

Gerry Giovinco, Bill Cucinotta & Phil LaSorda

We may have been naive or overconfident when we launched Comico but we had one mantra that we held to that was first spoken by Phil, “We don’t want to look back years from now and regret that we didn’t try when we had the chance.” To us, the fear of failure was never as great as the fear of never having the opportunity to make comics professionally. To do what we loved.

Today the internet is the greatest thing for young comic artists and for the entire medium. Anyone can publish on the web and, yes, there is a ton of incredible crap out there but more people than ever are taking a shot making comics and we fans of the medium are the winners because tremendous comic talent that may have never tried before is now offering our eyes a feast of variety that has never existed in comics.

So to answer Tom Spurgeon’s quote: “The question that many of us near comics ask — if only to each other — is if the art form can survive without the occasional cycling back to cruder efforts like this one, unpretentious material devoid of any hope for life or riches beyond its publication schedule that helped revitalize the art form four or five times during a low ebb.”

No! The art form, or more accurately the medium of comics or any medium for that matter, cannot survive without a cycle that includes cruder efforts. No crude efforts would imply no young talent and with no young talent to revitalize a medium, that medium will die a death of eventual mediocrity.

So, be brave and create! Express yourself as well as you know how and be willing to show the world. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Never stop growing. But when you do someone new will begin making their own mistakes and we will all have the pleasure of witnessing their adventure.

Waaaaagh!!! What can I say? Ever since I first laid eyes on a Howard the Duck comic book I was smitten with ducks. I’m not sure why, but I think that what Steve Gerber did with the character opened my eyes to what could be done with comics beyond superheroes. It helped a lot that some of my favorite artists had drawn the character.Val Mayerick, Frank Brunner, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema and Michael Golden always left me wanting more and the iconic image by Bernie Wrightson on that campaign pin just sealed the deal!

howard wearing pants

Later when Gerber launched his creator’s rights battle with Marvel and when Disney challenged Marvel over trademark infringement, causing Howard to be forced to wear pants so as not to look like Donald Duck, Howard the Duck and ducks in general became a symbol to me of some sort of rebellious, creative attitude.

When I was in high school at Bishop Kenrick where I first met Phil Lasorda and Vince Argondezzi, my original partners inComico the Comic Company, it was tradition to use acronyms to represent our party when we ran for office. When I ran for school president, the name of my party was, of course, D.U.C.K., Demonstrating Unity in the Community of Kenrick. I copied that Wrightson pin and made it school colors of green and gold. I even had a mascot that crashed a student assembly in a duck costume! I lost… but the power of the duck stuck with me.

My fancy for ducks followed me to the Philadelphia College of Art now called University of the Arts where it did not take me long to establish a group of rogue comic artists called Ducks that strove to publish a small newspaper called DUCKWORK. The thinly veiled connection to the school was a central courtyard that had two Peking Ducks inhabiting it and a bag lady that “quacked” as she walked in the area by our school earning her the name Duck Lady.

I wrote about DUCKWORK In a previous blog and in an effort not to be redundant I invite you to check it out for the full scoop here.

Duck SuspenseStories

It dawns on me now that those six issues of DUCKWORK probably have some redeeming collectible value for their role as a precursor to the founding and publishing of Comico comics , CO2 Comics and for representing some of the earliest published works of the widely acclaimed Matt Wagner which can be seen here shown for historical purposes, of course.

Duck Throat

Duck Wish

Raiders Of The Lost Duck

Rollerduck

This peek at the credits and a dedication to Wally Wood who had passed away just prior to that particular issues publication in 1981 shows our devotion comics and to the comic legend.

Duckwork dedication to Wally Wood

It also offers evidence of our lousy typewriter and some Ducks that went pro, Myself, Bill CucinottaformerComicoPartner and partner here at CO2 Comics, Dave Johnson of ROBOTECH fame, Matt Wagner,Joe Williams CO2 Comics contributor and missing, somehow, is another ROBOTECH vet and ELEMENTALS penciller, Mike Leeke.

Punk Duck 1

Ducks were infectious too. Not only did the DUCKWORK crew quickly assimilate to drawing the feathered fowl, I recently discovered this incredible project by Martha Erlebacher, an anatomy teacher at PCA when we were students there.

Could it be remotely possible that our parodies of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

Hatch of Venus

and Marcell Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase published in DUCKWORK somehow influenced one of our world class teachers? We may never know the answer to that but I think CO2 Comics contributer and another former ROBOTECH vet, Reggie Buyerswas tipping his hand when he sent me this fax of Jam Quacky in 1991.

Jam Quacky

Jam Quacky #1

Outside of DUCKWORK I had a propensity to parody superheroes as ducks and could often be found at comic conventions drawing Bat Duck, Spider-Duck, Silver Surf Duck, X-Ducks, Red Sonduck, you name it. The ducks were my gimmick, I guess, and littered my sketchbooks. They certainly helped me attract attention in those early days and develop lasting relationships with talented comic artists that helped to build Comico and CO2 Comics.

Bat Duck

Silver Surf Duck

Sonja Duck

I still love drawing those ducks so don’t be surprised if you start seeing them pop up here at CO2 Comics or on ebay. Hey, commissions aren’t out of the question either! If you have a passion to see your favorite character parodied as a duck just drop me a line at gerry@co2comics.com.

ROBOTECH is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and mourning the loss of of its producer and biggest cheerleader, Carl Macek.

Robotech/Macross #1 cover, Comico 1984

ROBOTECH was a big reason for the success of Comico in its heyday and is a blog all unto itself but before ROBOTECH became the successful franchise that it still is we published a comic book based on ROBOTECH’s original source material, the very popular Anime series MACROSS.

We were big fans of Anime having grown up watching classics like 8Th-Man, Gigantor, Astro Boy, Prince Planet, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, and Kimba the White Lion. We wanted to maintain the luster and integrity of the original.

Classic Anime

Our vision was to produce the pages using images taken from the actual video. When this proved to be an impossible option we decided that we would create the pages using a technique similar to that of genuine animation cels.

Line Art

Carl Macek’s wife Svea Stauch provided the pencils. Phil LaSorda and I inked all of the main characters which included all of the aircraft, spaceships and robots. The inks were done on a separate overlay that was later lettered then photographed as a positive transparency. This was an important layer of the final art since it would hold the black line separate from all the color work just as we would in the grey-line and blue-line systems that I have written about in earlier True Color blogs.

Matt

The backgrounds were all transfered to a different layer and painted much like the backgrounds in an animation cel.

Cel

Between the line art and the background paintings was a layer of clear acetate. All three layers were aligned to each other with registration marks. The clear film was then attached to the back of the line art and painted from behind with animation cel paint mimicking the flat look of cel production. After it dried, the layer was then removed from the line art layer and then attached over the more heavily rendered, painted backgrounds.

Printed

The two color layers would be separated by the color separator as one piece then the black line layer would be added. This all created the dimensional effect that the original animation cels had while preventing the black line from suffering from registration problems in the print process.

Macross 6 Line Art & Matt

This system, though it produced the intended results, was painstaking and required a small army of extra hands to chip in to get the work finished. Macross #1 would be the only time we used this technique. When Macross became ROBOTECH with issue #2 it was clear that the only way we would be able to produce a ROBOTECH issue every 2 weeks, which was our intended schedule, was to use flat color.

Macross 6 Cel & Prod

Our experimentation with all of the various techniques for producing color for comics proved that we respected the individual requirements of each property that we published. We were never content to produce a line of cookie-cutter comics.

Macross 6 Mount & Print

I like to think that our readers appreciated this and that the creators who worked with us understood that our priority was the integrity of their work. This provided us with the opportunity to work with many talented comic creators and made it easier for us to attract other licensed properties.

Today, nearly all color for comics is produced digitally. One thing I have discovered about creating comics digitally is that every creator has their own special technique to achieve a desired result. There is no real right or wrong way to produce quality comics.

That’s good for us at CO2 Comics because we love to experiment and we love to tap into our own experiences from the good old days. Our priority is still the integrity of the work and it will always be regardless if we are producing comics for the internet , digital readers or print.

In the next few days we will be announcing our first print project from CO2 Comics. It is big, bold and beautiful and has required a fair amount of experimenting to produce the product that we have been hoping for.